Contact centers may originate a call to a called party for various reasons, and the call will reach one of a number of possible outcomes. One obvious outcome is that the call may be answered by the called party. In various other situations the call is not answered, nor may it be even offered to the called party. This may be due to, for example, the called number being disconnected, the called party having changed their telephone number, or a failure condition in the network. While such instances may occur relatively infrequently, their occurrence can be expected. Contact centers need to update their records to reflect the outcome of the call and why the call failed—e.g., why the call did not connect in some manner with the called party. For example, if the called number is disconnected, the contact center should update their records accordingly so as to avoid future call attempts to that disconnected number.
In the past, under the so-call “Bell System”, telephone service was regulated, and standardized information and procedures were consistently deployed by local and long distance carriers indicating the outcome of a call. With deregulation, there are now a wide number of service providers that a telephone subscriber can use to provide telephone service of one type or another. Further, for a given call, there may be various carriers involved in carrying the call to the remote party other than the call originator's carrier. Finally, various technologies, such as VoIP, may be used when routing the call. As a result of these conditions, it is frequently the case that non-standardized procedures are used.
It is not unusual, depending the carriers or technology involved, that inconsistent information regarding the outcome of a call may be provided to the calling party. The information may be provided to the calling party in the form of audible tones and/or announcements, as well as parameters conveyed by signaling messages. Thus, it may be difficult for call handling equipment to accurately ascertain the outcome of a call if such information is not provided in the appropriate manner. Therefore, mechanisms are needed to allow a contact center to more accurately determine the outcome of a call in light of inconsistent information provided in response to such a call outcome.